One of the most disturbing results of the student risky behavior survey conducted a few years ago was the high occurrence of students reporting suicide attempts or suicidal thoughts. But a group tasked with studying the problem reported to the School Committee last week that measures taken at the high school are having an effect.

Maura O’Rahily gave a presentation on Wednesday on behalf of the School Health Advisory Council. She said that the group had met around eight times over the past few years, and praised council members, which included teachers, psychologists, and parents, for their dedication.

The charge of the group, O’Rahily said, was to take the suicide date from the last two youth risk behavior surveys (2005 and 2007) and to make recommendations to the administration and School Committee.

The group started with the assumption that stress and/or lack of stress management leads to suicidal thoughts and other mental health issues, O’Rahily said. They then gathered anecdotal data from both students and teachers as to the causes of stress.

Students reported stress from a number of causes, including bullying, college pressure, poor time management, substance abuse, testing, and peer pressure. Teachers reported stress caused by parent pressure, deadlines, IEP expectations, over-work and over-supervision.

“Next we decided to find out what the Duxbury public schools were doing to assist,” O’Rahily said.

She said they found that Duxbury had several “outstanding” programs in place to help combat stress. For teachers, there is an employee assistance program and other in house options available.

For students, the new high school advisory program has made an impact, O’Rahily said, along with the Link/Web program, student assistance, and the transition room at DHS, where students who have been away from school for long periods of time can go to ease their transition back into high school life.

“These programs are proving to be effective, and it’s unique to have all of these programs in a school.”  “We’re really fortunate to have these programs.”

O’Rahily said she runs an advisory group at the high school. The program is in its first year.

“Advisory stands out,” she said. “It was taken directly from the youth risk survey because youths did not feel connected to adults in the building ... advisory promotes that.”

O’Rahily said middle school members of the School Health Advisory Council believe the program would be helpful at DMS as well.